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Eliana Johnson

Jeff Sessions: Amnesty’s worst enemy

Sessions opposes not only providing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants — many Republicans are against that — but also raising the level of legal immigration. The Gang of Eight’s bill would have markedly increased it, and Sessions was one of the few voices on Capitol Hill arguing that even legal immigration hurts Americans, particularly when the economy is weak and unemployment high.

He has cast himself as a Beltway champion of the middle class, and his message of economic populism is part of a broader attempt to revitalize it. For Sessions, the issue of immigration illustrates better than anything else the divide between the ruling class — the “masters of the universe” — and working-class Americans, with the vast majority of CEOs and business owners favoring reform that, as he sees it, would deal a blow to America’s poor and middle-class workers. He has time and again cited Congressional Budget Office findings that increased immigration lowers wages overall but particularly for the poor. And, though many Republicans have called for allowing high-skilled immigrants into the U.S., particularly in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math, Sessions has repeatedly drawn attention to statistics suggesting we have more than enough.

So when, less than two months after Romney’s loss, Florida senator and Republican rising star Marco Rubio made it clear he would take the lead in negotiating an immigration-reform proposal with Democrats and the Obama administration, Sessions prepared for battle. Rubio had nearly all of the major financial forces in the GOP behind him; Sessions had history on his side.

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I love Jeff Sessions. He fights tirelessly for America, but because he lacks a lot of the fireworks of Ted Cruz, he very rarely gets credit for his battles. But he is a hardcore conservative and patriot, and a ridiculously nice guy in person, too. As grateful as I am to have a firebrand like Cruz on our side, I’m at least as happy—and maybe even happier—to have men on the ground like Sessions (and Mike Lee) who work to do what’s right on lower-wattage level. We need them, too, and they’re no less heroic or important.

The Senator did just a great job with that Eric Holder confirmation vote. A real profile in courage, voting with the worst of the scumbag RINOs to approve of the worst, most corrupt Attorney General in my lifetime.

A year and a half later, the landscape looks much different. House majority leader Eric Cantor is widely considered a casualty of the immigration issue. And, with Central American children flooding over the southern border, comprehensive immigration reform is, for the time being, all but dead.

No, I dont know any other prominent politician who is solid on this issue. Basicly the entire political class reflects a Chamcer of Commerce/LaRaza consensus from left to right. If their base didnt threaten to boil them in oil, Republicans would pass amnesty tomorrow.

Cruz might go in the right direction, but its too early to tell. One should always remember that conservatives once thought of Rubio as solid on this issue too.